You may have a better perspective than I do on this, Pudge, but I think there might have been some fault in "wasting" downs on kill shot long passes that did not work out and ended or mad emore difficult what could have been soul crushing drives. They got uber conservative real late on a 3 and out series with two runs and then an incompletion to Roddy but--all said and done--they did not strike me as having gone into neutral. The pick--thrown into double coverage--was risky and a big turning point.

I thought it was Ryan who got sloppy in the fourth Quarter, and our pass rush lettheir Qb have 15 seconds a pass. It was our typical 3 quarter win, with Ryan's last two passes being thrown with authority, unlike all of his other passes in the 4th quarter.

I didn't see a big difference in our play compared to regular season play, except the O-line blocked better!!

I have to ask, WTF happened in the 4th quarter? I'm glad we won, but how in the world do you blow a 20 point lead in the 4th?

The way you blow that lead is Matt Ryan. He simply cannot function in big games. It gets in his head. When he threw that ridiculous 2nd interception, I knew the game was over. I'm glad we pulled it out, but Matt Ryan is not Mattie Ice, unless you mean Ice melts and he melts. Not impressed.

I have to ask, WTF happened in the 4th quarter? I'm glad we won, but how in the world do you blow a 20 point lead in the 4th?

The way you blow that lead is Matt Ryan. He simply cannot function in big games. It gets in his head. When he threw that ridiculous 2nd interception, I knew the game was over. I'm glad we pulled it out, but Matt Ryan is not Mattie Ice, unless you mean Ice melts and he melts. Not impressed.

sorry, but this is patently absurd. How do you put this on Matt? Lets review, shall we?

In the 4th quarter, our 'defense' allowed them to score 21 points. If Pete Caroll doesn't call a timeout, we lose because Matt Bryant MISSED his first attempt. With 30 seconds left on the clock:

Matty Ice Ryan delivers. Throws a 22 yard pass to Douglas, then finds an open TG for 19 more yards to put us in range for the FG. How in the wide wide world of sports can anyone say Matt Ryan melts in a clutch situation? Were you watching the last 30 seconds of the game? Now, if Matt Ryan throws a pick in those 30 seconds you may have a point. But that didn't happen, so give the man his props.

Welcome to the board, bamanana. But not exactly the ideal way to start.

Have to agree with fun gus. Ryan threw that INT, and had the Falcons lost we would sit here and talk about how it was terrible and he cost us the game. But it didn't, and while that doesn't change the nature of the INT which was not a well-thrown ball. But ultimately if the Falcons lost this game, it would be because of the defense giving up 4 touchdown drives. The offense kind of went away in the 4th quarter, mainly because I think the Falcons were trying to run the clock out, and it goes back to what we've discussed all year long, when the Falcons need to get yards on the ground, they struggle to do so. In the future, I think the Falcons might tinker with mixing in some no-huddle in those situations. Not in the traditional hurry up, but let Ryan make the call at the line of scrimmage. Maybe? But it's clear this offense is much better in the no-huddle.

I tend not to get upset with QBs being aggressive, especially Ryan when for years we've complained about him being a bit too conservative. He just needed to make a better throw on that INT, if he throws outside as opposed to inside, he gives Roddy a better chance to make the play.

Matt didn't really miss the first field goal. Every time a coach has called a time out he goes ahead and kicks it, I don't think he really keeps his concentration, but the wide right was a good free kick so he could laser more on the second.

Matt Ryan played pretty well. He does seem to throw more interceptions in the playoff games; but he's a dominate reason why we scored every score we did.

I think part of that has to do with the level of competition increasing. As discussed in this thread, there is a fairly strong correlation between opportunistic/attacking defenses and winning football games. Which means that you're much more likely to see those style of defenses in January than you would throughout the regular season. I wanted to crunch some more numbers, so I looked at the interception rates of playoff teams vs. non-playoff teams.

In 2012, the average playoff defense intercepted the ball on 2.77% of pass attempts. The average non-playoff team was about 2.54%.

In 2011, the average playoff defense intercepted the ball on 3.02% of pass attempts. The average non-playoff team was 2.83%.

In 2010, the average playoff defense intercepted the ball on 3.15% of pass attempts. The average non-playoff team was 2.84%.

Now those aren't huge disparities between playoff defenses and non-playoff defenses, because it works out to be roughly like 1 more INT for a playoff defense for every 300 or so pass attempts.

But what is interesting is that the luck of the draw has put the Falcons against some of the more opportunistic pass defenses.

In 2010, they played the Packers who led the league that year in INT rate at 4.55%. That's significantly better than the average playoff team. They were about 1 INT per 70 pass attempts better than the average playoff defense that year.

In 2011, they played the Giants, who again were near the top of the league at 3.40%, again better than the average playoff defense.

And this past year, we played the Seahawks who were also one of the more opportunistic playoff defenses with 3.19%.

I think generally speaking you're going to have worry more about INTs in January simply due to better competition.

Cyril wrote:

I thought the O-Line play was the difference!!

I think most agreed it would be. But it begs the question was the OL playing well because the Seahawks pass rush was mediocre sans Clemons, or were they just playing well on general principle?

I guess we'll see this week vs. 49ers because they won't have their best rushers out of the game. Justin Smith isn't 100%, but he'll definitely play vs. Atlanta. And we know his presence makes Aldon Smith a force, plus they will also had Ahmad Brooks & Co.

I guess we'll see this week vs. 49ers because they won't have their best rushers out of the game. Justin Smith isn't 100%, but he'll definitely play vs. Atlanta. And we know his presence makes Aldon Smith a force, plus they will also had Ahmad Brooks & Co.

So the OL is really going to be challenged this week.

Aldon has not been his usual disruptive self since Smith's injury. Smith was literally the cog that made that defense what it was. Him still being injured (and quite severely), has made them vulnerable.

I don't buy that the reason our OL made holes was because of the competition. They had failed to make room in the running game all season, even against vastly inferior teams. This was different. Our OL played the game of the season against Seattle.

I'm also not at all sold by the San Francisco defense. Look at their schedule, they played some top offenses (NO, GB, NE, NYG?, SEA?) but outside of those matchups had probably the leagues easiest schedule for a defense. 2x Arizona, 2x StL, Buffalo, Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, MIA, and the Jets).

I don't buy that the reason our OL made holes was because of the competition.

I was referencing our pass protection. There's no denying not having Clemons affected that significantly.

As for the running game, I'd have to look at the tape (which I should tomorrow) to understand why the holes were there, to determine if our guys played their normal mediocre game against subpar competition or did they play above and beyond against quality competition.

Nuccah wrote:

I'm also not at all sold by the San Francisco defense.

I don't think you have to be sold about the defense as a whole. I think it's all about the pass rush. Because I believe with our weapons, we can be effective against any Back 7 throwing the football. But that of course is dependent on Ryan being protected because of Ryan's lack of mobility. Ryan is like the traditional pocket passer like Manning that relies on getting rid of the ball quickly ("out-thinking") to avoid sacks. If you get pressure and hit him, it speeds up his clock and makes the offense easier to defend.

And so while the point about Aldon Smith being "detached" and average with Justin Smith ailing is valid and true, it still begs the question though is a detached Aldon, injured Justin, Brooks, McDonald, etc. still good enough to beat our O-line. And while our O-line has had some good/better games as of late, they've also had some very bad ones.

Am I scared of the 49ers and their pass rush? No. But I am concerned, and I don't know how anybody who's been watching our OL play this year could not be.

If the Smith Twins do what they are capable of, and the others also have their best days, it could be a very, very long, depressing day for the Falcons on Sunday. If they don't, then I think I'll enjoy watching what Julio Jones does to Tarell Brown.

Am I scared of the 49ers and their pass rush? No. But I am concerned, and I don't know how anybody who's been watching our OL play this year could not be.

If the Smith Twins do what they are capable of, and the others also have their best days, it could be a very, very long, depressing day for the Falcons on Sunday. If they don't, then I think I'll enjoy watching what Julio Jones does to Tarell Brown.

With this, I agree.

If that 9ers front comes out and has one of their better games.. ugh. I think one way to minimize Aldon's impact would be to throw a few screens to his side to Julio, making them either adjust significantly to keep Aldon as a rusher primarily or we slow him down enough to where he doesn't become such a big issue.

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